... said the ant. I'm grateful that I seem to have hammered my story idea into something resembling a form, thanks to Plottr and the Snowflake method, and actually wrote up a first chapter today. Just finished it. Needs work, but that's what revisions are for. And it's actually pretty close to what I wanted it to be.
I am grateful for my niece. She came to live with me last year after my husband died. She is 28 years old and an ICU nurse. And so smart! Honestly, people in their twenties are a lot smarter today than I remember being in my twenties. Anyway, she keeps the home hopping. And has become much more of a daughter than a niece. The last year would have been much harder without her.
I'm grateful for your niece, too. Just reading your post made me feel all warm and hopeful for the future of Society.
I think our future is in good hands. Young people sometimes take a bad rap, but in my experience as a high school teacher, the vast majority of them were just wonderful.
I'm grateful to have completed one more trip around the Sun, and that it was the best one I'd had a while. This is a pretty fun ride! I think I'll go again.
I'm grateful for the way my sister's passing brought a lot of people together in a loving way for the first time in years, something I know she would like to be her legacy. Among her last words were, "it's all good." And I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful to have lived this long in relatively good health. I'm grateful for a full stomach and full pantry, clean water, and a place to sleep safely and in peace.
Grateful that yesterday was a fabulous early Midwest autumn day, with temps in the 60s, bright blue sky and wispy white clouds. Grateful that I was able to walk, upright and unaided, through a woods on that beautiful day, checking out the trees with leaves just beginning to turn. Grateful for a solid night's sleep and awaking into what appears to be another nice day.
Grateful to be alive. Grateful for the continuing wonderful autumn weather. Grateful to have access to vast libraries of writing and music via the internet.
Another beautiful autumn day. And the good health to appreciate it. And my friends in the old hometown whom I have known and loved for nearly half a century.
I'm alive and well, I made it to my yoga class today (and survived with little strain or pain), and I had a good dinner. It's the little things that matter.
Tomorrow will be a beautiful day, weather-wise. When I was on the phone with my health coach, we had almost nothing to talk about, no complaints or concerns. I am beginning to have first, faint, glimmerings of what true compassion really is.
Wonderful autumn leaves, even if I have to mow and rake them. The ability to mow and rake those leaves. The smell of those leaves, the way they swirl in the breeze, the early memories they rekindle, the romance of things past, the chilly twinges of regret and the soft warmth of the good things that were.
I am so grateful the internet exists. It is such a great resource for my stories . . . the amount of resources I find every time is mesmerizing. I search over the internet for just about any topic and details and I always find enough information that makes my stories feel real. Cast practical information aside, being able to get into what is like to have obsessive compulsive disorder without knowing someone who has it for instance, has been a "story"-saver. I have searched for details about the morphology of riverbeds, tools used by ancient civilizations, surveying technologies, games played by children in 1800s, hunting& survival recommendations, mental illnesses, discussions about death, and many more. Internet, my stories want to thank you for your help!
Grateful for my leaf blower, how much faster and easier on the back than raking. Grateful for that Screamin' Sicilian Supreme pizza we ate for dinner. Grateful for the few minutes each work day that my autistic son and I stand waiting for his work van to arrive, and he puts my arm around his shoulders and we talk about things that interest him; usually he disappears into his own inner world and it's so nice to hear his soft voice and laughter.
I need to do this today, as an antidote to an aura of negativity: I'm grateful that my kids have all grown to healthy adulthood. I'm grateful to have grown up in mid-America in the mid-20th century. I'm grateful for long-time, long-suffering, close friends.
I'm grateful I have a working body. My husband became completely disabled before he died. But I can walk and jump and run up stairs. I can move however I want to. And the most important of all, I can go in the pool. We have a fantastic community indoor pool which I go to about 5 times a week. I don't go for the physical but for the mental therapy. When I'm done in the pool, it's like I have a new brain. It only thinks positive thoughts.
This could also go under favorite quotations, but I think it fits here as well: "All sanity depends on this: it should be a delight to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones moving easily under the flesh." Doris Lessing
Grateful that my youngest daughter has found and married the man she feels is her life-partner. Grateful that I don't live in a war-zone. Grateful that when I cannot sleep I can come down to my "studio" and bang away at the keyboard for a few minutes.
Grateful to the ghosts of days past who have visited me these past few days. Grateful for the gift of mostly good health. Graateful that the storms of November have held off, at least long enough for me to make this visit.
I'm grateful for this nice weather we've been having. Sitting out on the patio in 22 C (72 F) weather on November 5!
I'm grateful for the bad weather yesterday (gusts of 70 mph+ in this area) that blew all the leaves off the trees at once so only one raking day is required- but what a raking day!
